Staying on property, bus vs. car?

[nedidajohn]

Car except MK!

 

[redrosesix]

Since bus service depends on which resort you're staying in, my answer has to be: It depends.

We stay at value resorts so bus service is frequent -- if we're not going to the parks early, bus is always quicker for us since you have to add the parking tram time to the equation. If you're arriving at RD, either is good.

But for MK, I would never take my car if I didn't have to. It's so much quicker to get dropped off and picked up at the front of the park, and at the end of the night I'd rather wait 10 minutes for a bus than the considerably longer wait for the monorail or ferry, then the parking tram, etc. At park closing, just getting to your car can easily take 30 minutes.

 

[DonnaL]

Agree with posters above who say .....bus only to MK....everywhere else take your car. The one exception to this would be if you are staying at a MK resort and can either monorail or boat to the MK rather than bus......

 

[OklahomaTourist]

With all due respect to the good posters here, I'd like to offer an angle on this I don't think has been entirely addressed. Most of the responses here have been about Park->car, but very little has included info about Resort->Car->Park. That's a HUGE element in the equation in my book.

If, for example, you're staying in Saratoga Springs, you are rolling the dice with the buses. For us, the variability of the buses has proven to be the only real reason we would consider NOT staying there. As we normally get to the parks pretty early, it hasn't been too much of an issue, but for our midday break when we're tired, waiting for the bus is *not* fun while your standing at the bus terminal at the park, especially when you see two, five, or (seemingly) 100 buses for every OTHER resort go by (okay, okay, I exaggerate, but you get the point).

So, the question of driving/busing must consider where you're staying as much as anything else, so there really can't be a universal answer. We did, in fact, drive a couple of times from SSR to Epcot and MK, and realized its not entirely a panacea. There's the walk from the lot to the gate, and if you're a distance out, you may need to wait for a tram (either way). If you're staying at a resort with >1 transport option, eg monorail, bus, boat, the need for a car diminishes greatly IMHO.

And, frankly, there are just times when its nice to just flop on the bus and not worry about driving, esp. when you're the one doing the driving

 

[dec2901]

We will be staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

[DonnaL]

If staying at AKL the only transportation option you have is bus....and IMO...leaves a lot to be desired. Our last two visits to WDW have been to AKL/Kidani Village.....the last time being mid December 2012 and the time before March, 2011.......in March, 2011 we had a car and used it pretty much all the time.......December, 2012 we did use bus transport several times.....and decided that in the future we will always drive when staying at AKL...either Jambo or Kidani.........simply because of the amount of time wasted traveling by bus.

 

[WMorganS]

We come to WDW a few times per year, sometimes with a car and sometimes without. So I can say with some experience that while a car isn't always necessary, I think you'll regret not having one..

#1. You're asking whether a car is needed, so you're not really ready to plan a car-free trip.

#2. You're staying at AKV, which isn't in the middle of things. When we stay at AKV we always have a car.

 

[scdak]

Many, many trips to the world off site so I always had to drive, 3 trips onsite in the past 3 years - 2 of them we used Disney transportation, last trip was Nov 2012 and we drove and I don't care if I set a foot on a Disney bus ever again! We never spent more than 10 minutes driving to any park from POFQ, parking was never a problem and we always were in the parks in far less time than the previous 2 trips using the buses. We went to almost all of the deluxe resorts for meals and we didn't have to leave 1-1 1/2 hours in advance to make the reservations like Disney suggests when taking their buses. It was a so much nicer to have a place to sit, to not be crammed onto buses with far more people than should have been on there! This is the first trip in 3 years that I didn't have bruises on my legs and feet due to being stepped on, kicked or beaten to death with overgrown strollers because I was on a bus.

 

[XGrumpy1]

If I plan to go to Universal, Sea World, Busch, I get a car. If I am just doing Disney I ride the bus!

 

[TamaraQT]

This July will be my first time onsite. We are staying at AoA. I am looking forward to it. However, I am only at Disney for 3 nights. I will be offsite for 7 nites afterwards, so we will have a rental car. We decided to try the buses and use our car too. I have a feeling the car will be faster. We are already used to parking and using the tram. I think the stops between one destination and another is going to make the difference, but we will see. I am looking forward to making the comparison. I appreciate everyones opinions and sharing experiences. It will give me some things to think about.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Other factors to consider when will you be visiting. We used a car once during our trip over New Years and it was a nightmare. The parking lots were a mess. But that is where I'm showing my bias. I'd rather wait a few minutes for a bus than deal with driving. Also, we've never waited more than 10-15 minutes for a bus. Plus, we fly down so a car is an added expense so for us the expense does not outweigh the convenience. So in your situation you will have a car. You have the best of both worlds. I'd use my car and then if it became inconvenient to use my car then I would use disney transportation. The only other situation when disney transportation is nice, is when everyone wants to have an alcoholic beverage.

 

[DSLRuser]

you will find the answers to be 50/50

we preffer taking disney transportation everywhere possible. whether we have a car or not.

Vacation for me is being able to park the car (when we drive) all week and not having to drive.

It's debateable if its any quicker or not to drive ones self. but an extra 15-30 mins does not bothe rus at all.